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The Provincial Lady

Synopsis

A special edition of The Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield reissued with a bright retro design to celebrate Pan’s 70th anniversary.

The Provincial Lady should lead a charmed, upper-middle class life in her Devonshire village but with a husband reluctant to do anything but doze behind The Times, mischievous children and trying servants, it’s a challenge keeping up appearances on an inadequate income, particularly in front of the infuriating and haughty Lady Boxe.

Delightfully witty, the Provincial Lady was the Bridget Jones of the 1930s, documenting the chaotic peculiarities of everyday life with wonderful wit and humour. This abridged edition takes the very best extracts from her first two ‘diaries’ and presents them as one brilliantly comic novel.

In the media

Miss Delafield’s humour is crisp and unforced . . . every page has an unexpected twist

Daily Mail

It is a simple domestic chronicle, gloriously funny

Yorkshire Post

The most amusing diarist who has appeared since Mr. Pooter kept his Diary of a Nobody [by George Grossmith] . . . one of the most delightful pieces of comedy I’ve read for years